Waffley Wedded from Plum Deluxe is a specialty blend, and I was lucky to get a taste thanks to a tea swap. In trying this tea I learned that Plum Deluxe can be contacted to make a custom blend for a special occasion, in this case for a wedding.

With such a sweet and punny name, I was predisposed to like Waffley Wedded. I got a novelty waffle iron a few holidays ago and I use just about every weekend. This is a great tea have on hand while I’m waiting for my waffles to cook.

This is a blend of black and oolong tea, so it is both full-bodied but has a rounded mouthfeel. Sweet maple and creamy vanilla are the driving flavors, perfect on its own or with a dash of milk to pump up the dessert-like experience. A hint of citrus comes through from the orange peels to help the blend bright and not overly sweet.

You won’t see this blend on their everyday listing, but if you’re looking for something similar give Pick Me Up Oolong a try, which also has maple and oolong flavors. Or blend your own tea favors for a special occasion and customize it just the way you like.

Growing up, I drank herbal teas like fresh ginger tea during New England's harsh winters and iced blueberry tea during its humid summers. Over time, I was tempted into trying a wider variety of loose leaf teas by the fandom-themed blends available online. I have since gone on to design my own blends, and I greatly enjoy drafting up flavor ideas and drawing tea labels.
When I'm not thinking about tea I can be found reading novels and comic books, playing video games, or watching movies; my favorite genres being history, humor, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Generally, I prefer bold teas: spicy chais, rich black teas, even smoky lapsang souchong on occasion. But I have also dabbled in herbal rooibos, flavored oolongs, and traditional matcha. I'm glad to be expanding my palette by tasting and reviewing new teas and blends.
Find me on Steepster: http://steepster.com/A2shedsjackson
Fandom blends: http://www.adagio.com/signature_blend/list.html?userId=292149

Confession: I’m completely fine with drinking alone…. Tea, of course 😉 But drinking with friends offers some undeniable benefits – laughter and memories made, more importantly a spread of tastebuds that offers better insight than just one picky tongue.*

There are so so many beautiful ingredients in this custom Blueberry Custard from Blendbee, I needed all the help I could get to do it justice! First off, I highly recommend using a clear brewing system (gravity steeper or mason jar) to be able to fully enjoy the making of this majestic Purple infusion. (Fortunately I had just cleaned the hard-earned tea patina off mine with baking soda and vinegar, so it was even more beautiful than my usual cuppa!)

Between the three of us sipping, only one added sugar and it really took away from the innate sweetness of this mix, hmmm better off just trusting the blend maker on this one. Some of us were crazy about this tea, but others found the herbals to be unpalatable. So we looked into what exactly were imbibing…

With Blendbee, you can create your own mix weighing anywhere from 1 oz to ½ pound. You start with a choice from 15 tea bases, and here they chose the China Green tea.

Next there are over 90 categorized ingredients to choose from (though it’s recommended to stick below 8). Must be a tough decision from all those options! This blender chose 7:
Earthy and pungent category: yarrow flower;
Mild and fruity category: elder berries;
Herbaceous herb category: strawberry leaves;
Mild and nutty category: ashwaganda root;
Mild and herbal category: agrimony herb, and coriander seed;
And one uncategorized, marshmallow root.

Next the website offers additional extracts and flavors (up to 3 per blend). Here the blueberry and custard flavor extracts were used. (It was argued at one point that this put the ingredient count to 9, above the recommended 8, but that person is a stickler for semantics and didn’t like the tea anyway, so read that with a grain of salt).

Some of these herbs strike me as acquired tastes, beyond that, I would’ve preferred having actual blueberries instead of the extract, though I didn’t see it as an option (yet) and the extract probably consistently offers more flavor in a smaller space.

This organic blend featured so many different flavor profiles, it was a… memorable… experience for well-developed sippers, and newbies alike.

*The best part of sharing with friends is finding a loving home for leaves that aren’t your favorite (yet). Thanks H.R.!

My favorite tea is always changing, like a typical Gemini. When I was a teenager, my native Washington Starbucks coffee was forbidden, but I occasionally snuck in a chai latte, so black teas have been my go-to morning drink when I feel feisty.
As an adult, I spent 3+ years living in China and Japan where I learned about green, white, oolong, and pu'er teas origins. I was even prescribed traditional medicinal teas while I was there and that's a taste you don't soon forget! But it didn't scare me away from herbals - I really like cold brewing rooibos and tisanes now because I can share them with my toddler.
I am back in school to become a geologist, and these science textbooks can be difficult to get through without a strong cuppa. When I'm not studying, I love pairing my teas with my BFFL and salted caramel macarons, or having existential chats with my dad.

My television often displays shows about Earth’s mysterious past. Ancient Aliens, Curse of Oak Island, What On Earth, Mythbusters, Finding Bigfoot, and Hunting Hitler have all graced our screen.

My husband cannot get enough of unsolved peculiarities. We’ll be eating a meal and he’ll be like “did you know that the skull fragment the KGB presented as evidence of Hitler’s death was tested? And it’s FEMALE?” or “have you ever seen pictures of the circles in South America where nothing grows — and NO ONE KNOWS WHY? THE SOIL IS FINE” or “did you know the sphinx was probably a dog, not a lion?”

So when I got a tea called “Atlantis FOUND!”, I was pretty psyched. Finally: one of those historical enigmas has been SOLVED.

CROSS ONE OFF THE LIST.

This is a very tasty chocolate-vanilla-fruit tea. It’s punchy fruit — blueberry and raspberry — in an ocean of what tastes like milk-chocolate. In summary, a very nice dessert tea.

I sometimes wish that Adagio’s default black tea had a little more oomph, but that doesn’t disrupt this tea very much because the other flavors are so strong. The meh-nature of the black tea can be canceled out somewhat by adding a little bit of vanilla almond milk (or whatever your choice of add-in might be).

I’m going to make up a batch of this and keep it in my insulated bottle as I hike through the tundra looking for the elusive Yeti. I think he’d dig it.

"Hey, everybody! I'm Leah, a graphic designer from Pennsylvania, United States. I live with my husband and rescue mutt in a house with colorful walls. I love fonts, colors, animals, flowers, novels, illustration, geeking out, and -- obviously! -- tea. I've only been heavily into tea for about a year, but I've found I tend to prefer loose blended black dessert teas. I normally drink them hot western style without anything added; if I add in some vanilla almond milk or honey, I promise I'll mention it! When I'm not blogging here, I'm blogging at leahlucci.com/starling or posting to Instagram (super_starling), so come say hi!"